The Journey
by Divine Sorceress
Summary: a cross between ff 7,8 + 9 for an english project


The Journey  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own nothin'  
  
  
Princess Claire Alexandros of Dollet woke one morning and heard that a theater ship from Lindbulm was coming to perform Romeo and Juliet in a few days. The pretty and intelligent sixteen-year-old then knew that that was her opportunity to escape and go on her journey to find or spark her dormant or forgotten memories of her first six years of her existence. She could not wait to see the cities of Midgar, Balamb and Treno. She decided that she would ask her mother one more time to let her go on a journey.  
  
When she was dressed, she went to her mother. Queen Quistis was a plump woman and had been kind and understanding, but since Claire's 16th birthday, she had been acting strangely. Claire had tried to bring this up with other people and servants, but they just ignored her. She was relieved to find her mother without the company of Captain Rusty and General Beatrix. As soon as she started to speak, the court jesters Zell and Seifer appeared and said that the Queen would see no one.  
  
When she was back in her room, she thought about Zell and Seifer. She thought that they were not just court jesters anymore. In fact, she even believed that they had more influential over Queen Quistis than her advisors had ever been. Claire then decided that worrying over her mother was interfering with the planning of her escape. She then thought that she would escape by pretending to fall asleep at the beginning of the play, then sneak on the theatre ship when she was alone.  
  
On board the theater ship, the members of the group Tantalus, who were more than just actors, were planning the kidnapping of Princess Claire. Cloud Strife, a cute, eighteen-year-old was the person doing the actual kidnapping. The sword-wielding mind reader was having second thoughts. That was because the penalty for being caught kidnapping a member of the royal family was hanging. He did not want to in front of everyone on the gallows.  
  
Squall Lionheart was completing the last test to obtain his magic usage license. He had always been jealous of his friend Claire for her ability to use magic and summons. Now that he could use it, the worrywart, nineteen-year-old was going to concentrate on making the relationship between them stronger. If Claire wanted, he was prepared to follow or take her anywhere she wanted to go.  
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Squall had gone to the play because it was one he had never seen before and he hoped to plan an expedition with Claire. That was when he sensed the kidnapping plan in the actor's minds. He had no chance of stopping it because he did not know the area of the play that the kidnapping was supposed to be in. His only hope was to pay attention to the princess and try and read further into the actor's minds.  
  
Claire was preparing the sleeping potion that she would take as soon as the play started. She had a premonition of the theater ship crashing into a forest that was near the castle, but she shook it off. Claire took her seat beside the Queen and relaxed her mind so she would not have any second thoughts about her plan. As she was doing this, her mind picked up on Squall's aura and she sensed his thoughts towards and about her, which made him a weirdo in her mind.  
  
Queen Quistis was ecstatic about the play. "Romeo and Juliet" was one of her favourite plays. She was also happy that the Tantalus acting troupe did not have that narcissist Lowell in their company because if they did, she would have sent them right back to Lindbulm. She could only have begged her husband to banish the murderer of the real Claire because the king had not known of the murder. He did not even know that Lowell had let Claire freeze in the icy waters of Lake Dollet. Her only hope was to remove the horn of a girl named Sarah because she looked like the real Claire. So, after a painful removal of her horn, Sarah became Princess Claire.  
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Queen Quistis was so engrossed in the play that she did not even notice when Captain Rusty took Claire to her room before the first act was through. She was also thinking about the mysterious man that kept coming to her and providing her with weapons to destroy entire towns. She thought there was an ulterior motive to his generosity and she had sent spies to find out more about him the last time that he had visited. They had only returned this morning with news that he was called Septhiroth and had a number of other people under his command.  
Baku, the leader of Tantalus had been watching the princess's seat. When he saw Captain Rusty remove the princess, he told Cloud that it was time to act. Cloud snuck into the castle and did not have any trouble finding Claire's room because of all the signs pointing him in the right direction. When he had reached Claire's room, the intricate carvings of marble and the gold trimmed solid oak door had impressed him. Since he was a thief it was in his profession to notice those things. Inside, he had found her sleeping like an angel. He had told himself not to get attached, then scooped up Claire and went back to the ship.  
  
Squall had also noticed the disappearance of Claire and thought it was because of the actors. He found his way on board the ship and searched around until he had found a room that was fit for a princess. Even though it was poorly decorated, Squall knew that it was a very good room. It had a large area of space, an immense canopy bed and a skylight. He decided to hide under the bed until he could confront the captor of the princess and return her to the queen.  
  
As soon as Cloud stepped into the room, a madman jumped out from under the bed and challenged him for the princess. Cloud looked him up and down and read his mind. He found out that the madman cared for Claire and other things he did not want to know. He also only needed to look him over and Cloud could tell that he would only need one carefully planned strike to knock the madman out. He accepted and put Claire on the bed. They danced around for a while and then Cloud struck his opponent and the man crumpled to the floor.  
  
With the madman taken care of, he tied him up and left him on the floor. He did not touch Claire because he had read her mind and knew she would go along with them without much fighting. He sent Baku a message that it was done and then sat around waiting for his friend Cid to tell him when they were going to take off.  
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When Claire came to, she found herself sitting in front of a cute boy, with a shade of blond coloured hair. She did not wish to speak to him, so she read his mind. She discovered that his name was Cloud and that he had kidnapped her. She also sensed that he was still unsure that he had not done the right thing and he had feelings for her now and did nit want to turn her over to their mysterious employer. Then she had an eerie feeling. Cloud was talking to her and he told her to butt out of his private thoughts and she replied him saying that she would respect his wishes.  
  
Cloud did not know what to think when had felt Claire sensing his thoughts. She had been the first person that could sense his inner thoughts, actually any thoughts that he had ever had. He then told her that he was to guard her while they were journeying to Lindbulm and when he was paid for the job that he would escort her on her journey to discover her missing first six years of memory.   
  
Cloud then had the weirdest thing happen to him. Claire smiled at their destination. Sure he knew that she wanted to go on a journey, but she was still being held captive and anyone before had always freaked out because they were being held captive by a gang of thieves. Just then, the madman woke up. Cloud had not bothered to read his mind because he did not want to know the psycho's thoughts. The psycho had asked Claire if she was alright and told her that he would support her and was blabbering on until Claire sent a telepathic message to him and Cloud saying "Squall, shut up. I will require a bit of your assistance, but do not blabber on forever all the time."  
  
Squall was in a stupor. He had just been told off by Claire, the weird blond coloured hair guy who had beat him up was sitting in front of him and was watching both him and Claire. The miserable thief had destroyed Squall's dignity and had captured him as well. Now Squall was tied up and lying on the cold wooden floor. The skylight now let the magnificent sunrise in. Then Squall heard the door open.  
  
Claire was still laughing at the sight of Cloud's face. He looked stunned to find that his hostage was not screaming her head off. She had just finished laughing when a man named Cid came in. The big, black man had a gun for an arm and she was afraid. Then she saw Cloud's face and knew she could trust the man. Cid was telling Cloud that they had arrived in Lindbulm and that they were just contacting their mysterious employer. Cloud then told Cid that the one on the floor had to be carried but she would follow them.  
  
As soon as they were done conversing, a big black mage burst through the skylight followed closely Captain Rusty and General Beatrix. They grabbed Claire and tried to escape but Cloud was ahead of them. He had already untied Squall and then Squall, Cid and Cloud attacked them. Cloud easily slew the black mage and they were just about to destroy Beatrix, when a bright light blinded them. THE princess was dropped into Cloud's arms and Rusty and Beatrix, along the body of the black mage disappeared.  
  
After the battle, Cloud healed his wounds with his quick healing power and Cid picked up Squall and left. Claire told Cloud that she would go along on one condition: no matter what happened, she got to see Regent Barret. Cloud agreed to that and he led Claire to Tantalus's hideout.  
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When Tantalus saw their mysterious employer, they were shocked. Claire was the only one who was happy to see the man. She told him what she had thought that was happening to her mother and Barret explained that he ordered the kidnapping to see if she was safe. When they had everything cleared up between them, Claire asked Barret if she could go on her journey. He only agreed to let her go when Cloud and Squall promised him that they would protect her.  
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When the weary group had reached Midgar, they had fought so many monsters that they did not know what do. They could just hope that they never encountered that many monsters again. By now, the group had become accustomed to having telepathic messages sent from Cloud and Claire and Squall the only one talking in response to questions. In Midgar, they heard about a company named Shinra that was destroying Gaia by draining Mako energy from the ground. They heard that an unknown operator had set up the company and was controlling it from a far.  
  
While hunting for a hotel in the Sector 7 slums, they came across a church that was the home of the only living flowers and trees. They met a girl named Aeris who asked them to stay the night at her house. While they were leaving the church, a bunch of black-suited men attacked them. After Cloud and Squall had slashed them down, Aeris told them that those men were the Turks.  
  
When the group got to Aeris house, she told them that the Turks worked for a guy named Septhiroth. The Turks were just one of his organizations. While she was working at Shinra, she had learned that Septhiroth had started Shinra to destroy Gaia. He had started the Turks so he could locate the last ancient and a girl with the power to send people back to the past to view what had happened. It turned out that the Turks had discovered that Aeris was both of those people, so she quit Shinra and started to raise her flowers full time.  
  
The first time that the Turks had come after her they had told her that they were there to capture her and surrender her to the sorceress Rinoa and the evil Septhiroth. Rinoa wanted to compress time and Septhiroth wanted to destroy the Promised Land so no one could escape the fate of being lost in time and so only sorcerers and sorceresses would remain on Gaia.  
  
Aeris had heard of an old dwelling for the ancients and wanted to see it at least once if she was going to be captured eventually. Squall, Claire and Cloud agreed to take Aeris along so they set off after a goodnights sleep. It turned out Aeris was right. About halfway to Balamb, they found the last dwelling that had held all the ancients at one time.  
  
They entered the city and they found that everything was decaying and old. It was made of expertly craved rock, but if it was not decaying, it was exploded or broken. The only full structure left was a shrine. When Aeris went near it, she could feel the power of the ancient's prayers washing over her. She was absorbing more energy and she started to ask about what had happened to the city.  
  
All of a sudden, Septhiroth came from the sky. He stabbed the blade into Aeris's side and she crumpled to the floor. Before Cloud and Squall could reach Septhiroth, he had disappeared. Cloud and Squall decided to give her a grave in the water behind the shrine. They floated her out and let her sink gracefully to the bottom of the lake. They were left with the sight of her looking like a falling angel and then the group left.  
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When the group neared Balamb, they saw an old stone building that looked like it had seen better days. As Claire neared it, she had a faint flashback of an eye in the sky and a worried woman grabbing her and taking off in a boat, but it faded rapidly. Cloud also had a little flashback of him falling from the sky and a girl with black angel wings laughing, but he shook his head and it disappeared.  
  
Squall, Cloud and Claire found an inn to rest at that night. Cloud had an uneasy night. He had a dream where he and Claire were getting married and a big eye popped out of the sky. It shot out a beam and destroyed the entire town. A quiet, peaceful singing brought Cloud back to his senses and he knew that an eye in the sky was entirely impossible. Now to find out who was singing was not.  
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Rinoa was lucky. If those meddling kids had looked just a bit further into the blackness of the ruined orphanage, they would have seen her wings. She could not wait to complete her time compression. Once she achieved that, she would destroy Septhiroth because he would no longer be of any use. Just then he appeared beside her. He told Rinoa that he had succeeded in destroying the Promised Land. When Rinoa asked how, Septhiroth told her that he had destroyed the last ancient and said that he was enraged that his slave did not recognize him, the great Septhiroth, as his creator and say sorry for his abandonment.  
  
Rinoa was fuming in her mind. He had destroyed the person, that would have completed her 10-year efforts, in a matter of a few seconds. She was going to ask him to have permission to use the Invincible to destroy his failure. Then when she had control of it, she would destroy all of Shinra's plants around Gaia, so that if she had to live with humans, that she would at least be living on a healthy planet. She asked Septhiroth and he said yes, so she took off to fly to Dali, a town they had recently destroyed.  
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Squall was dumbfounded. They had found out in the morning that they had to be married to pass through the other side of Balamb. He was going to ask Claire, but Cloud asked first and what puzzled Squall was that she had said yes. So now he stuck wandering around the city looking for a person that would marry him. He finally met one. Her name was Emily Kansacki and she wanted to explore the other side of Balamb as well.  
  
Just after they had said "I do", a giant eye appeared in the sky. Squall remembered that that was the legendary Invincible that he had learned about when he went to Oeilvert as part of his testing for his magic license. Supposedly, there had been this planet called Terra, which was trying to inhabit Gaia. There had been this totally insane dude who had thought he was immortal, but he was not. When he found out, he built the Invincible to destroy Terra, but since he was so angry and mad, the build up emotions had allowed a tremendous power to be used. The survivors made it to Gaia just as the guy blew up Terra and himself. The survivors were so weak, they recorded the history and then the Invincible disappeared.  
  
Squall brought himself back to reality and grabbed Emily's arm. They took off at breakneck speed for the exit of Balamb. When they came to Cloud and Claire, they ran as fast as they could but only got 50 metres before the eye let out a tremendous beam of energy. They ducked just in time, but the heat made them pass out.  
  
When Cloud woke up, he was hearing the same singing that had calmed his senses back in the inn. He now knew who it was. Claire had the loveliest voice he had ever heard. He sent her a thought message and she replied with a thank you. She was not blocking her thoughts and Cloud sensed a strong sense of gratitude and love towards the message.  
  
Just then Emily and Squall came running up. Cloud and Claire sensed that they needed to read Squall's mind, so they did. It turns out Emily was the first one awake, she saw the ruins of Balamb and transported them to a field near Treno. Emily was asking to come along with them now because her family had been destroyed and she would be of use to them and they set off.  
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They did not find much in Treno, except for a ruined Shinra plant and the fact that to get to Kalm they had to cross the water in a boat. When they were on the boat, the Invincible came and beamed them up. On board, they found the sorceress Rinoa. They gazed in marvel at her magnificent black wings before registering that they were on the enemy's ship.  
  
Rinoa told them that since Septhiroth had destroyed Aeris, she could no longer carry out her plan, so now she was against Septhiroth. Then she took Cloud aside and apologized for taking away his memories for the first eight years of his life. She told him that Septhiroth had created him to be superior to her and that she was jealous. On their last mission together, she had decided to destroy Cloud as well as the orphanage that held the last of the Summoner tribe. Septhiroth had felt that they were a threat, so he ordered Sarah, Cloud's Princess Claire, killed. Cloud had just pressed the button that fired the beam on the Invincible when Rinoa erased his memory and tossed him off the ship.   
  
With those words, Cloud could see his memory again. He remembered falling off the Invincible, destroying all those innocent lives at the orphanage and the boat sailing away with Sarah and the owner of the orphanage. After remembering that, Cloud sent the news to Claire, along with an apology for getting rid of six years worth of memories. Claire forgave him and they rejoined the group.  
  
Rinoa told them all that she was going to distribute her powers among them. After she did that, everyone felt different. They were all more powerful than they had ever been. Before Rinoa died, she made them all promise that they would work as a team to destroy Septhiroth and make sure that he was dead. Then she told them that they could use the Invincible to go to the Northern Continent, where they would find a big crater that housed Septhiroth's hideout at the bottom.  
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When they reached the bottom of the Northern Cavern, they found Septhiroth standing with three bodies at his feet. Claire looked sick. At his feet were the fresh-killed bodies of Queen Quistis, Captain Rusty and General Beatrix. Septhiroth told the group that they were getting a little too nosy and that they had it coming sooner or later. Cloud had to restrain Claire from rushing up to him to attack. Septhiroth also said that even though Rinoa had given them her powers, it would not be enough, that their pitiful efforts would not succeed.  
  
With that said, the group attacked. Squall and Emily cast their most powerful magic spells on Septhiroth over and over. Claire summoned her most powerful summon, Bahamut and Cloud slashed at Septhiroth with all his might. When he felt the time was right, Cloud jumped up, then brought his sword down on Septhiroth.  
  
  
Epilogue  
  
King Cloud and Queen Claire reigned happily over Dollet with Lord Squall and Lady Emily always at their sides. They had started rebuilding efforts for the towns that Septhiroth had destroyed and had Shinra find a more safe energy to use.  
  
Cloud often told the tale of how he and Claire met, even though Claire did not approve that much. Eventually their grandchildren wrote down the story and the two most favourite monarchy pairs ever were preserved in the history books.  
  
  



End file.
